Monday, April 25, 2016

A World of Good

Most of us adapt to our cultural backgrounds and even current influences. Most influences are cultivated by our own relation to whatever we were brought up to believe in. But what if your core beliefs were shaken up a bit? What if God came down to earth and said, "You got it all wrong! Why did you solely rely on words that men wrote? Some of that wasn't inspired by me." How would you look at the world? And if you are a conservative Christian -- if everything you read with total conviction came tumbling down, how would you respond to those you warned about hell?

Many conservatives are angered by the whole transgender bathroom fiasco. I've covered this a million and one times, so to save you the pete and repeat -- let's just say this: how does this affect you? Most unexposed people who have never met someone who is transgender are assuming that they all look the same, dare I say that derogatory term mostly used in the porn industry of "tranny". They think there's going to be a male wearing a leather get up with his bits peeking out. I've heard every term from "twisted" and "perverted" as well as "grave consequences for their choices".

One Christian radio host even stated that their "choices" shouldn't be upon everyone else or that society should accommodate them. He went on to say, "I have love and compassion for all, and I believe that it is more loving to address their spiritual and emotional needs than to intentionally ignore those needs by reengineering society."

"Reengineering society"? Didn't we reengineer society when we abolished slavery here in America? Didn't we take down the "NO COLORED ALLOWED" signs off the doors of diners and luncheonettes? Didn't we acknowledge interracial marriages not even more than 50 years ago? Did it kill us? And how wrong was it to have had these discriminatory laws to begin with? It boggles my mind to think that these Christians have no education in history, therefore repeating it again and again. He stated that he has love and compassion for all? No. He has a fear of the unknown, perhaps a deep-seated reason why he is so against gays, lesbians and transgender people.

I'm refraining from using their actual names because these people happen to be recent friends of ours with very different beliefs and opinions. I am not trying to slam anyone against a wall, but this next story kind of threw my entire viewpoint off of how I really feel about their strong beliefs. Everyone has different beliefs, but this next story had me thinking it was a bit more than just their faith in God. His wife sought this story out by herself just to attack the LGBT community. I'm actually kind of saddened by this.

And it was then I heard a disturbing phone call made by his wife to a restaurant over a complaint made by a gay waitress who received a scripture instead of a tip on the bill. The article was written by Chris Dyches from The Charlotte Observer.

A Charlotte waitress says she was infuriated and hurt when a group of ladies left a message for her on their bill – taking aim at her sexual orientation.
Alexandra Judd works at Zada Janes in Charlotte’s Plaza Midwood. She says a group of patrons she served for lunch Tuesday morning left her a “hateful message” in lieu of a tip.
A Bible verse was left on the tip pointing Judd to Leviticus 20:13.
“If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination,” the King James version of the Old Testament verse reads. “They shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.”
Judd is gay.
The bottom of the receipt had a message for her as well: “Praying for you!”
“I never expected a hateful gesture like this,” Judd said of the comments. “I’ve had a guest leave me a pamphlet to their church as a tip one time, but I didn’t feel as if they were being hateful towards me. The ladies that came in were very rude, and would hardly talk to me – but I never expected this.”
She says she was infuriated and hurt by what she saw.
“I’ve heard of people leaving fake money, or writing funny stuff in the tip spot of a check but never believed it would happen to me, in the way that it did,” she said.
Judd posted a picture of the receipt on her Facebook page. Her co-workers and friends have shared the post and shared their shock and anger in the comments.
According to Judd, she’s lived in North Carolina nearly a year after moving from a small town in Alabama.
She has taken part in a few rallies for equality since she has moved to Charlotte, including Wednesday night’s rally in uptown Charlotte against North Carolina’s House Bill 2.
“I don’t care what anyone says, this is the most disrespectful thing you can do,” she wrote about the incident on Facebook. “Don’t pray for me darling, I have everything I could possibly want and need in my life.”

Anyway, the radio host's wife called the restaurant in hopes that this entire story was made up by the lesbian waitress. While she was on the phone with the restaurant, she kept asking, "Don't you think she is lying about this?" And the lady on the other end said, "No, I don't. The handwriting was the same." But the wife kept egging her on to believe that the lesbian waitress was making all of this up in hopes to get her for defamation of character. She was so determined that she actually sounded pathetic -- to the point where the restaurant employee said, "Ma'am, I don't know what else to tell you."

The wife wanted her to lie or to tell her that the waitress lied about the "religious bigotry" she had received.

I am trying to make a point here, so bear with me. It sickens me to think that there are Christians out there using God's name and Holy Scriptures from the Old Testament in order to discriminate. But that's not even the point. 90% of their focal point are all targeted against the LGBT community. The wife, who happens to be self-proclaimed ex-lesbian herself, seems to be very much influenced by her husband, which by the way has made it known that he's going to try to tiptoe through his bigoted words in order to be more politically correct in one broadcast he did a few days ago. He stated that he would be "softer" with his bigotry beliefs against gays and lesbians.

These people I speak about are actually a very nice couple. But what makes them so enraged when speaking about the LGBT community? They were hurt and harassed by many members of our community, but at what cost? What did they do? Of course two wrongs don't make a right, but when you try to take away somebody's rights using nothing but your manmade biblical scriptures (God inspired of course) -- then how are we progressing as a society? I read the Bible, but I use discernment. Homosexuality in the Bible are referencing to lustful and reckless sexual relations. It also speaks about rape and humiliation as seen in Sodom and Gomorrah. They twist and turn each scripture to suit their needs so they can discriminate against us and then use "freedom of religion" to have a legal right to deny us.

Let's just put out an example. Divorcees whose spouses are still alive -- that's considered adultery in the Bible. So if I were to rely on every single word the Bible speaks about, then I would believe that they're going to hell, right? But when you have a deep and intimate relationship with God -- a personal relationship with God, then you will know that even though you are spending time with an "adulterous" woman, it does not affect your life. God speaks about not judging others because the same judgment will be used against you.

How will same-sex marriage and nondiscrimination laws for transgender people ruin your lives? They're not pedophiles. If a pedophile is going to walk into a restroom, he will anyway. Watch your children at all times. There are bad people everywhere -- why associate bad people with transgender people? It's so ignorant and irrational. They're not doing it for their "religion" -- they are tormenting others of the LGBT community because they have deep-seated issues of their own to contend with. And to elaborate on that notion -- the wife also stated that not only did she have lesbian feelings at one time, but if she was "still a lesbian", she would definitely try to be with a good friend of hers who is also an online speaker. She has also stated that as a therapist, that she would deny any services to anyone of the LGBT community.

See, repression brings on anger. Repression due to what I call, "Catholic guilt", in this case, "Christian guilt", results in unforeseen hypocrisy. Look at how many conservative Christian politicians were caught with their pants down or seen on gay hookup sites? We need to address the psychological instabilities of those who are extremely antigay and start focusing on the real issue: closet homosexuals. Don't you ever wonder why some Christians are so adamant about slamming those who are gay and lesbian? It's almost like a determination -- a drive to steal, kill and destroy their spirit. And as a Christian -- the only ones seeking to kill, steal and destroy is the devil himself.

Words that I have heard them use are "evil", "sure destruction", "grave consequences" when describing the LGBT community. My opinion? Live your life and worry about your own issues. I don't believe in ex-gays. I don't believe you can convert someone to a different sexual orientation. I even asked the husband, "Did you choose to be straight," and of course I didn't receive a response. Maybe he just thought that was some sort of gay rhetoric. Nonetheless, with the primary focus on homosexuality and transgenderism -- they seem to lose all five of their listeners because let's face it -- if you're talking about God or spreading God's message around, He certainly doesn't want you condemning people to hell. That's his job. He can judge others. He can cast people into hell. Let your job be spreading the good news and spreading lots of love.

I'm not trying to "silence" anyone or take away their "religious freedom" -- I'm trying to explain why they get so much flak from the LGBT community because they cry about it so much.

When all you do is feed people with negative preaching and beg for donations, it seems to get tiresome. When you're constantly trying to find flaws or badmouth a certain group, you'll get some people in -- the ones who love the drama, but that's all it is: entertainment purposes only. What about inspiring others to love one another and to reach a deeper connection to God?

But I digress.

Some of the social media blabber by my own personal friends are a bit disturbing. I saw this post which left me a bit saddened since I thought she was very open-minded. She's also non-religious, so take it for what it's worth.

She wrote, "So if I feel like a man one day, I can go into the men's room and shit in the urinal?? Wtf, why is this getting so much attention? Male anatomy- men's room, women's anatomy- ladies room. Is that so hard?"

Yes. It is that hard, because genitalia has zero to do with gender identity in some cases. It's the same irrational "logic" used by the way right: "So if I wanna be a frog, I can be a frog?" When you can't just live your life without bashing a certain group, it makes me wonder how fulfilled your own life is. Miserable people will try to hurt others. And while she thinks that nobody on her Facebook page is transgender, she may want to tone it down for those who are advocates and friends with transgender people. I love my friend, but this has made me realize how unexposed and ignorant (not meant in a bad way) people can be. We live in a small town in New York, and it can be quite the tight knit circle of only people who look the same, act the same, live the same. You get my drift.

As a Christian myself, I am so happy that I had the opportunity to visit places where everyone was included. Black, white, Hispanic, gay, straight, bi, queer, transgender, cisgender, various creeds -- it filled my heart to see everyone at peace with one another. When you live in a bubble of your own community and never let in anyone different, it leaves you to believe that everyone besides yourself and those you keep in your circle are "evil" or "bad". No one is forcing anyone to change their minds, but it would be nice to see more love within our Christian society. It would do a world of good.For more of Deb's articles, please visit: www.debrapasquella.com or join her on Facebook and Twitter. Check out her cooking blog for some of her famous recipes!